PUPILS at a Richmond primary school have impressed catering bosses with their own recipes – which are now on the menu across North Yorkshire schools.

Three youngsters from St Mary’s Roman Catholic Primary School won a Masterchef-style cooking competition and their winning recipes are now appearing as part of the new North Yorkshire County Caterers school lunch menu.

Laurence McGinn, 10, Laura Dixon, 11 and Carys Emptage, nine, have their recipes included on the new spring term menu – and the school sampled them for the first time today. (Tuesday, January 14) Laurence’s spinach spaghetti, Laura’s spicy chick pea dish and Carys’ custard cream cookie were the winning dishes.

Laurence, who won first prize in the competition, said: “I was shocked to be the overall winner.

“When I told my Dad, he was ecstatic. My mum uses the recipe a lot, we really like it.”

Carys said: “I was surprised to win. My Grandma was very surprised too; it is her recipe and one of my favourites.”

The competition was organised by Caroline Roberts who runs the after school Let’s Get Cooking Club. She said: “The remit for the children to enter the competition was to be able to make something they would like to see on the school lunch menu – but we didn’t think it would actually happen this term.”

Jane Newman, from North Yorkshire County Caterers, was invited to judge the competition.

She said: “We like to offer a nutritious school lunch and are always looking for new ideas that the children would like. It seemed the most logical step to incorporate the winning recipes into the new term’s menu.”

The Let’s Get Cooking Club is funded by the Children’s Food Trust, a national initiative to get children involved in healthy eating.